Submission to the King James Bible

And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes, II Kings 22:11.

We know from the story of King Josiah that he set about to restore and build the house of God. Commendable as that was, it was the discovery of the word of God lying amidst the discarded junk that transformed the kingdom. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant, II Kings 23:3.

I hear a lot about men seeking to build churches or seeking to build up old ones. What is too often lacking is a covenant to utterly submit to the word of God. Let's not fool ourselves. Any man who does not believe that the King James Bible is perfect and who is not willing to submit himself to what it says is not submitted to the word of God. The word of God is submitted to him.

He picks and chooses according to his own lights what is truly from God and what is not. His congregation trusts in his scholarship and resources to give them light as to what is scripture and what is not. In such a church, no matter what they claim in their doctrinal statements, and no matter what they profess, the word of God is under subjection to the preacher, not vice versa.

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple, Psalms 119:130. Josiah did well to begin the repair to God's house, but it was the entrance of the word of God that brought light. A good building and willing congregation was not enough. It was when a willing congregation was given understanding by the light of God's word that God began his true work.

Over the next week, Mormons will fill their various houses of worship. They will sing. They will rejoice in fellowship one with another. They will live clean lives. Their hymns are often God honoring.

I have attended prayer gatherings of the local Muslim community in my area. They are a clean, well educated group who clearly love one another and find a comradeship of being strangers together in our country. Jehovah Witnesses will gather and discuss their outreach to the community. They are greatly affectioned one to another and they look forward to their gatherings. In each of these cases the people will tell you that their participation in their faith gives them meaning in life. Hey, if you and your family join a bowling group it will transform your family and give you purpose and draw you close to new people.

All too often, preachers mistake a willing congregation which is kindly affectioned one to another and following fundamental precepts for a congregation filled with the light of God. If that preacher stands in judgment on the word of God, his church is under a shadow of darkness. Let him not measure his work by attendance, zeal, the joy of the gatherings or any other such measurement. Let him measure his work by the entrance of the word of God and the work that it does.

Unless a preacher is 100% committed to the King James Bible as the word of God and he is 100% committed to its precepts as written, he labors to build a work of man and when the rain and the winds come, it will wash away, or worse, it will become a fossilized tradition bound relic. We are living in the 21st century. I bear witness to you that God has winked at the ignorance of men concerning his word in past generations but there is no longer any excuse for any preacher to not trust a King James Bible. The evidence is overwhelming and abundant.

I stood in awe in my church building this morning. In prayer I brought many of our current problems and distresses to the the throne of God. I also marveled before God at what God can do when a broken and hurt people come into a broken and hurt church with a broken and hurt preacher and submit themselves to a King James Bible.